This is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors...

Despondent over debts and troubles at home, Jack Aubrey is sent to the Mediterranean to join the Royal Navy's blockade of the French port of Toulon. There, he confronts an admiral he cuckholded years before, embarks on a secret mission, becomes embroiled in political conflict, and, with his friend Stephen, faces the choppiest waters of his career.

Two men, Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor and intelligence agent, become fast friends aboard a man-of-war ship during the Napoleonic wars.

Aubrey and Maturin are caught in the outbreak of the War of 1812.

As Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are on their way home to report their latest victory to the government, they are menaced by those out to capture Maturin for his actions against the French intelligence network in the New World.

This segment of the Aubrey saga is set in Malta, where the captain's "small, sweet-sailing frigate" is undergoing repairs. The island, however, is swarming with Napoleonic agents, which means that Stephen Maturin must do everything in his power to avert sabotage.

On October 21, 1805, as Britain's Royal Navy under the command of Horatio Nelson clashed with Napoleon's forces in an epic sea battle off the coast of Spain, the fate of Europe hung in the balance. Though the cost was high--and Nelson himself was killed--the British victory prevented Napoleon from invading Britain and paved the way for the eventual defeat of the French emperor. Without Trafalgar there would have been no Waterloo. The Battle of Trafalgar...

The Letter of Marque continues the saga of Jack Aubrey, brilliant yet disgraced officer, and Stephan Maturin, ship's surgeon and British intelligence operator. Together they sail on a desperate mission against the French, which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from the private hell of his disgrace.

The continuing saga of the Royal Navy's Captain Jack Aubrey, now being sued by slaveholders for the ships he confiscated off Africa. At the same his wife is after him for his affair with a mistress. Things improve when he goes to sea to fight the French and captures a ship with gold.

Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin sail to Australia with a hold full of convicts, including a dangerous spy, while the crew is decimated by disease and their ship, the "Leopard, " is pursued by a Dutch man-of-war.